The Impossible Music of Black MIDI

But in this form, I really see no value.

I'm only hearing noise in those videos, the noise from the switching on of the note (that slight 'tack')

The synthesisers apparently can't handle that amount of notes without some artefacts.

And see, they're only adding huge amounts of notes, but no pitch shift and no volume control (apparently)

This could be interesting with different (softer) instruments, better synthesisers focused on more notes and more "playfullness" rather than just hammering notes

If you mean "physically capable of being played by a human" then I'd say that a large majority of popular music right now is unplayable by humans, simply due to the sheer amount of digital production that goes into them. Many genres of electronic music fit in this category, but while being "unplayable," all clearly have an author (the composer/producer) and an intent (no matter how shallow or profound).

But if you meant "playable by humans" on a subtler level, I then ask:

Is music coming from a radio playable by humans? Is music written on a sheet playable by humans? Both lack an immediate human operator that is "playing" them, yet despite this difference of media, both are valid forms of music that clearly communicate the intent of a human soul (the former through the radio device, the latter through symbols).

I'd argue that using the computer/algorithm used to generate the black MIDI is an instrument like any other. Maybe you were asking something more along the lines of: how valuable is music that is generated arbitrarily or randomly by a computer algorithm, and does it contain "soul" like music produced explicitly by humans? That is a philosophical question about the nature of art and computational creativity, perhaps without an answer.

Here's Vache by Venetian Snares, from 2006: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2f5gOo1VEM

And here's a webcam video of the sequencer data scrolling past: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGK-EzEa45U

The techniques are much older. Here's a screengrab of the OctaMed tracker running on an amiga, playing back the original drum tracks from Aphrodite's jungle classic Beats Booyaa from 1994: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkVSe9DubE8

And here's the whole of Beats Booya to hear it in context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vts6rqJHMK8

Real producers chop their beats in hex ;)

EDIT: also, most music software includes something called an arpeggiator, into which you play chords, which it breaks up into little sequences of notes according to different parameters. Set the interval down to 20ms or so and you've got your black midi :)

That's also how you get those distinctive chord-like sounds out of monophonic soundchips in oldschool video games.